Velleitie: Fog After Friction

Velleitie is a solo ambient/drone project based in Cleveland which specializes in ‘antimatter exploration.’ The artist chose this descriptive phrase because of the dichotomous visibility of his music; most of the sounds he uses are generated with his electric cello and electric guitar (and therefore are ‘visible’ sounds), but at the same time these sounds are invisible in that it’s nearly impossible to pinpoint a causal source when listening. Fog After Friction is Velleitie’s most recent track, and also perhaps one of the darker ones I’ve heard from him. Make sure to turn up your volume before hitting play.

It seems like there was either no mastering at all or a very low master volume level, because I had to double the volume of my speakers to be able to hear anything but the slightest hum. Once they were cranked up, I found an extremely pleasing and gradual atmospheric hum which filled my room with sounds both brooding and mystical – low, sweeping pulsations beautifully paired with high-end tones which shimmer but only in the slowest, most obviously circular fashion. I found that it ended rather abruptly, but perhaps that’s the nature of ambient work in short form: in just four minutes, it’s difficult to establish more than one or two abstract themes, and even more difficult to reintroduce a past theme in a way that isn’t cheesy or forced (the refrain, after all, an identifiable melody or tonality, is the crux of musical resolution). So all in all, I’m pleased with this track, though I think it could definitely use a master volume boost of at least 10 db.

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No Smoking Media is a regularly updated and hand curated feed of music releases, free from hierarchical judgment and included regardless of press coverage. Our priority is for our readers to discover good, creative music that they might not otherwise hear, and for artists we admire to gain a wider audience and be recognized for their musical excellence.